Rejected suitor asks cities to help get SPSA info

ReEnergy is being backed financially by Waste Industries, a trash hauling company based out of North Carolina. No experience in landfilling or waste to energy power plants. The principals of Reenergy are leftover management personnel from the Covanta buyout of American Ref-Fuels a few years back. If one of the industry giants didn't keep them onboard it speaks volumes to their abilities in waste to energy. One of the biggest complaints the citizenry and local governments have about the SPSA board and its operation of the areas solid waste disposal system is that they lack the right experience. Wouldn't selling to ReEnergy be doing the same thing?

Ah yes, the sound of an informed citizen.

Privatization would result in accountability. SPSA can't have that - most of them would lose their jobs. Much better to hang on to cush government funding, which requires no accountability and accepts substandard performance.

The proposal to purchase SPSA assets was done under the PPEA act of VA that has certain guidelines that must be followed. The bidders to purchase the facilities in Portsmouth followed those guidelines and RENERGY did not. They are now trying to circumvent the process through backdoor deals. They visited the facilities in Portsmouth prior to the deadline why didn't they submit a proposal then? The proposed fees will be paid for a longer period of time if the member communities force the board to re-open the bidding to all competitors again. REENRGY had their chance and missed it for wahtever reason. Why not ask those questions instead of once again ridiculing the board for attempting to rid itself of debt and privatize part of the system? Selling everything to one private company only replaces a public monoply with a private one.

wahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Yes, the board failed to take actions to minimize this crisis. No denial there. But in fact, this emergency is caused by two issues determined at the creation of SPSA, and one determined by the Supreme Court, all out of the control of past and current boards. I identified these issues below, but to reiterate, the first is free disposal for Suffolk, the second is the cap on the rate for the largest municipal user, and the third is the decision by the Supreme Court that cities cannot set rates for the commercial sector. As a result, the average tip fee today of $65/ton is not spread out equally; Suffolk pays nothing, the Beach's rate is capped today at $53/ton, and the commercial sector and the Navy pay whatever rate can be negotiated, currently about $35/ton. Ironically, the proposal from ReEnergy acknowledges this disparity, and it is conditioned on the members agreeing to new contracts and rates. Clearly, the unintended consequences of 25 year old, legally binding contracts have created this crisis.

The fact is Mike Barrett is part of SPSA's problem and SPSA is a mess. Time to clean house and move on.

Your board created the problems we are faced with and have created the bad publicity that you complain about. 'Highest tipping fees in the nation,'? If that is wrong, point out who does have higher fees. You folks are slow to fix the problems you have created and it is very obvious that you don't have the experience that is really needed to manage waste disposal for this area any more. I've been to meetings of your people - and since I wasn't any sort of a high roller, I was treated very rudely. The bad reputation SPSA has generated has been earned - by its own doings and its management and how it has treated the people of Hampton Roads. It is going to take a lot to repair that reputation and win back the trust of the people, IF that is at all possible at this point.

SPSA has failed due to the lack of vision an consequences elected officials did not plan for, regarding Suffolk and Virginia Beach growth, in comparison to rate caps and no fees at all. If SPSA's current mangement structure remains at the helm, you will continue to see poor business practices and high priced upper management that can be drastically reduced in order to provide better financial efficiency.

If you have bad apples in the bunch that have failed in their leadership roles within a company, you do not let them remain and continue failed policies that have brought this company to its present state. You recruit new, proven leadership, that has proven success within that industry, and you rid the company of people who have led this company to financial ruin. SPSA's house must be cleaned.

What a shame that the Pilot has decided to become an advocate of one proposal to take over SPSA, and has adopted language designed to confuse the public rather than to clarify. In this case, ReEnergy was not rejected; the SPSA board does not have the authority to renegotiate the contracts that each city signed with SPSA. That power resides with each city, not with the SPSA board. Second, the system tip fee is in the neighborhood of $65/ton; not anywhere near the "highest tip fee in the nation." As we all know, the method of cost allocation created by the framers, which provided free disposal to Suffolk and a capped rate on the largest municipal user, when added to the Supreme Court decision that provided a market rate to the commercial sector, all have conspired to make the cost allocation system, not the disposal system itself, antiquated and out of date. The Pilot has had an oportunity to elucidate and inform; instead, it has become a big part of the problem.

I have read the ReEnergy proposal to SPSA, and although I was delighted to see plans for recycling, one paragraph in response to the question "What about out-of-state waste?" seriously worried me: "...ReEnergy does not see any need at the present time to attract out-of-state waste into the system." To me the words "at the present time" are a huge red flag. If the facility is owned and operated by a private company, the City of Portsmouth can no longer refuse to accept out-of-state waste under current interpretation of the U.S. Constitution's Interstate Commerce Clause. Unless there is an air-tight way of imposing a restriction on out-of-state waste as part of a sales agreement between SPSA and ReEnergy, Portsmouth will be in exactly the position it would have been had the Covanta proposal been accepted a couple of years ago. No-o-o-o!

You mean Mike Barrett hasn't solved the SPSA situation yet??? What is he waiting on?

With a character like Don Williams as chairman how could one poosibly think that SPSA is operated in other than the most efficient manner? A true example of high caliber leadership. Just ask Norfolk taxpayers!

It's about time someone got smart and started going around the SPSA's so-called leadership. The only way this mess is really going to get straightened out is if the local governments bring in people that actually know something about handling trash on a massive scale like what Hampton Roads has. The board of directors for SPSA seem to be professionals at one thing: dodging critical issues and questions until they are forced to answer up by the heads of the communities they are supposed to be serving.

SPSA directors may not have a completely unbiased view on this proposal. Why not let the cities paying the bills develop a committee of "qualified" business and industry folks to study it and make a recommendation. No politics, or self preservation motivations, no self serving agendas - just make a judgement to pursue or put to rest.

Doubling price to dump trash? With the price of fuel at record lows its impossible to make a reasonable excuse. If anything the government NEEDS to cap executive pay in relation the lowest paid workers. Sure this a capitalist country.. but that's exactly what got us in the financial crisis we are in right now.

The SPSA must have a lot to hide to keep playing these games like this. I say screw being nice - force them into bankruptcy and expose whatever illegal activities they may have going on...